Faculty

Meet the Cultural Entrepreneurship Faculty

Photo of Dr. Aparna Katre

Dr. Aparna Katre

Associate Professor & Program Director, 
Cultural Entrepreneurship

Office: Humantities 468B

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 218-726-8306

Prior to her current role, Dr. Katre provided leadership in the areas of strategy, organizational change management, business process improvement, and program management at Global Information Technology consulting firms. She was also the founder of a nonprofit organization and was a small business owner.
Dr. Katre’s research interests are at the nexus of entrepreneurship, strategy, and design thinking for social change. Her research has explored social entrepreneurs’ motivations, behaviors, and strategies particularly during the startup stages of venture creation. Dr. Katre also studies social entrepreneurship in emerging economies, with an emphasis on women entrepreneurship. She is responsible for the program design, curriculum development and instruction, and foster international relationships. Dr. Katre emphasizes the need to develop a local ecosystem in order to support the development of an entrepreneurial mindset of our students and to create a pathway for student-led startups.

Dr. Katre has a Ph.D. in Management (Designing Sustainable Systems) from Case Western Reserve University and is associated with various academic and practitioner groups.

Olaf-Kuhlke-pic

Dr. Olaf Kuhlke

Associate Professor, College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Founder, Cultural Entrepreneurship Program

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 218-726-7331

Dr. Kuhlke’s research and teaching interests are in three principal areas: culture, population, and environment. As a cultural geographer, he examines the socio-spatial construction of nationalism and its expression in public spaces. In the area of population geography, he has worked on projects ranging from studying migrant behavior and representation to local demographic mapping using Geographic Information Systems. In the field of environmental studies, his focus is on urban ecology, especially habitat mapping and urban water issues.